Overview participating exhibitions

Cruel and Unusual2012

Lori Waselchuk

GRACE BEFORE DYING

A life sentence in Louisiana means life. More than 90% of the 5,300 inmates imprisoned at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola will die behind bars. Until the hospice program was created in 1998, prisoners died mostly alone in the prison hospital. But the nationally recognized program, run by one staff nurse and a team of inmate volunteers, has changed that. Now a terminally ill inmate is transferred to the hospice ward. Here, inmate volunteers work closely with hospital and security staff to care for the patient. The volunteers, most of whom are serving life sentences themselves, go to great lengths to ensure that their fellow inmate does not die alone. Prison officials say that the program has helped to transform one of the most violent prisons in the South into one of the least violent maximum-security institutions in the United States. Grace Before Dying looks at how, through hospice, inmates assert and affirm their humanity in an environment designed to isolate and punish.

GRACE BEFORE DYING

George Checks Jimmie’s Breathing, 2008

GRACE BEFORE DYING

Prison Guard Watches From The Levee, 2007

Biography

Lori Waselchuk is a documentary photographer and arts activist. Waselchuk values working with public and private organizations that work for social change and build community.

Waselchuk's photographs have appeared in magazines and newspapers worldwide including Newsweek, LIFE, The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. She has produced photographs for many local, national and international organizations including CARE, UNICEF, UN World Food Program, Médecins Sans Frontières, The Vaccine Fund, YMCA, CityBridge Foundation, National Hospice Foundation, YMCA of Baton Rouge, and Let Us Grow(South Africa).